


Norrington Regrets

by WimseyLady



Category: Pirates of the Caribbean (Movies)
Genre: M/M, Pre-Slash, Regret
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-28
Updated: 2013-03-28
Packaged: 2017-12-06 18:00:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 794
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/738512
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WimseyLady/pseuds/WimseyLady
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This may turn out to be part of a larger work, I just haven't figured out the details yet.</p>
    </blockquote>





	Norrington Regrets

**Author's Note:**

> This may turn out to be part of a larger work, I just haven't figured out the details yet.

# Norrington Regrets

"Sir, what of Sparrow?"   
  


Norrington turned with a confidant smirk. "Oh, I think we can afford to give him one day's head start, hmm?!" He quirked an eyebrow and sauntered away all but humming to himself. The smile remained as he entered the cool shadow of the fort, and his feet tapped lightly on the stone steps as he followed the curve at a trot. He was already checking the corridor in both directions as he reached the bottom, and upon finding them empty, ducked beneath the alcove of the stairs and crumbled.   
  


He staggered, his trembling legs finally giving out, and caught himself on the stone wall with a great, ragged inhalation of breath. He didn't know whether to throw up or faint, but the world was spinning about him. How had everything gone so wrong so fast?   
  


He placed both palms flat on the wall and rested his forehead between them, closing his eyes. The natural cool of the stone helped.   
  


It's all gone, he thought desperately. All of it. Everything. Elizabeth. The perfect choice for his wife. A woman he could have respected, even loved in his own way, who would have been the prefect shield on his arm deflecting the whispers and speculations that inevitably began to follow a man of prospects who remained single. He did not mourn her loss personally...not much, and he supposed in time, with the proper focus on his career, people would forget his humiliation. He would live down the embarrassment of being jilted for a blacksmith! A blacksmith with aspirations to piracy no less! And in time he would become simply Commodore Norrington again. Or perhaps Admiral Norrington if he could redeem himself in the eyes if the admiralty. How many times had he lost Sparrow now? How many times had he watched him sail out of his life?   
  


A montage of exits played like a lightning storm across Norrington's eyelids, and he groaned, forcing his eyes to open so that the memories would stop. But they didn't stop, and he sagged against the other wall, resting his hands on his thighs as the weight of reality threatened to bear him to the ground. Jack Sparrow was gone. There it was, the truth. Jack Sparrow was gone and James felt the loss keenly.   
  


He should have jumped over the parapet after him! Thrown himself over more like. He was no romantic fool... But he was, wasn't he! Beneath his uniforms, his stiff British formality he was a romantic. A hopeless romantic. An idiot!   
  


He sighed heavily and scrubbed his hands over his face. A classic fool. To fall for a pirate! He gave a self-deprecating snort of amusement, and shook his head. A pirate!   
  
_"I was rooting for you, mate. Know that!"_  
  


What the hell had that meant?! Had it all been some test that Norrington had failed? Passed? It hadn't been in reference to Elizabeth that much he was certain of. Jack had never been fooled on that front. How could he have been after everything?   
  


_"It would never have worked between us, luv. I'm sorry." _He had not been speaking to Elizabeth, what use had he for her? And yet in the end what use had he for Norrington? Isn't that what he'd ultimately said, _"It NEVER would have worked."___ But he had filtered the thought through the safety of a pretty girl, protecting Norrington's reputation to the end. Surely that implied something?! That Jack cared? That he felt regret? That he remembered?   
  


The commodore stifled a harsh snort lest it become the hysterical giggle building beneath his breast bone. What had he become? A love sick maid hiding under the stairs ready to weep over a blackguard.   
  


_But he isn't a blackguard,_ a traitorous little voice whispered. He never was. Jack had never been anything less than himself, and that was the damnation of it all. Norrington had fallen in love with the very characteristics that now broke his heart.   
  
Footsteps on the stairs caused Norington a lurch of fear. He couldn't be caught hiding under the stairs, his feelings and insecurities written plainly across his face. He forced himself up, smoothing his uniform, schooling his features, and stepped out with purpose a few seconds before the young lieutenant reached him. To the inexperienced boy it appeared as if the Commodore had been striding along the corridor and nothing more than happenstance had thrown them together.   
  


He stepped aside clumsily to allow his superior to pass. "Oh, Commodore, excuse me." His voice had barely broken.   
  


"It's quite alright, Lieutenant. As you were." Norrington's voice was clipped and businesslike, his shoulders square, his chin up. He passed the boy without breaking stride. No-one could tell. No-one would ever know.   
  



End file.
